FEDERAL CONTRACT BIDDING GETS UP TO SPEED WITH EDI

Despite much evidence to the contrary, there are instances in which the federal government is becoming more efficient.
Take the process of bidding on supply contracts, for example.
Using electronic data interchange, the standardized exchange of information via privately owned computer networks, suppliers in a host of industries are finding it easier to identify government projects and make winning bids to fill them.
'It is a significant change - like going from horse and buggy to the auto,' said Greg Davis, manager of information services at Samsel Supply, a 50-employee manufacturer and supplier of construction, industrial and commercial marine products in Cleveland.
Mr. Davis' company has been using EDI to connect with major customers for more than seven years. It's only in the last nine months, however, that the company has been able to take advantage of the electronic world to bid on government projects.
'Before, bidding for federal contracts was not an open business. Now it is in the public domain,' Mr. Davis said. 'In the time since starting to use this system, our sales to the federal government went up 30% to 40%.'
EDI, in many ways, is an equalizer in giving small companies the opportunity to compete with larger businesses for government contracts.
'In the past, every agency had its own rules, and it was difficult for a small business to deal with the federal government,' said Michael Kolbe, a manufacturing technology consultant at the Electronic Commerce Resource Center, which is overseen by the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program.
ECRC, using funds from the U.S. Department of Defense, helps local manufacturers and suppliers learn to use the Federal Acquisitions Computer Network, or FACNET.
FACNET works with 27 private computer networks nationwide, including Advanced Communications Systems in North Olmsted, that are government-certified to implement various facets of the federal EDI bidding system. The government uses the system for purchases of $100,000 or less. Mr. Kolbe said such smaller-level purchases account for 98% of all federal government transactions and 18% of the dollars spent.
A supplier using FACNET registers with the government to participate through one of the 27 computer networks. It also provides an electronic profile of the types of products it has available. When a government agency sends out a request for bid, it goes only to electronic mailboxes of companies that fit the requested product profile.
'We respond with a bid either the day we get the request or the next day,' said Mike Fitch, president of Battery Empire, a battery supply company in Cleveland.
'It used to take up to 90 days to find out if you won a contract,' said Robert Stone, president of Advanced Communications Systems. 'Now it takes five to 10 days.'
So far, Mr. Stone said, only 10% of federal agencies are using FACNET. But that percentage is growing quickly, and it will likely be 100% before the end of the century.